US short-seller Hindenburg Research has said it is not under investigation by the US SEC as it rubbished alleged links of its founder to a hedge fund for preparing reports targeting companies.
Adani group stocks rallied on Thursday morning after Hindenburg Research, a US investment research firm known for short-selling, and whose reports resulted in wiping out billions of dollars of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his companies, has been shut down. Shares of Adani Power surged 9.21 per cent, Adani Green Energy soared 8.86 per cent, Adani Enterprises climbed 7.72 per cent, Adani Total Gas jumped 7.10 per cent, NDTV rallied 7 per cent and Adani Energy Solutions advanced 6.63 per cent on the BSE.
The sudden and surprising announcement by Anderson comes within days of a Republican Congressman, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, asking the Department of Justice to preserve all the documents and communications related to the investigations of Adani and his companies.
Hindenburg Research, the forensic financial firm that challenged the Adani Group, took its name from the infamous airship that burst into flames upon arriving in New Jersey in 1937. And the counter to its damning report against the conglomerate was dubbed 'Operation Zeppelin,' named after the German dirigible airships used for reconnaissance and bombing during the First World War.
Activist short-seller Nathan Anderson, known for his high-profile campaigns against the likes of Adani Group, said he is closing his firm, Hindenburg Research, not because of any threat -- legal or otherwise -- and that he stands by all its reports.
In 1937, a hydrogen-powered German airship flying into New Jersey caught fire and crashed, killing 35 passengers on board. It was sort of a man-made disaster as some 100 people were loaded on to a balloon filled with the most flammable material in the universe. The airship was named Hindenburg. Eight decades later, in 2017, a graduate of international business management from the University of Connecticut founded a "forensic financial research" firm to specialise in spotting wrongdoings and frauds, or what it calls man-made disasters, at companies around the globe and take market bets against them.